The Prairie Homestead

Homesteading | Self Sufficient Living | Living off the Land

Jill Winger

33 Comments | |    Last Updated: April 8, 2025

Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup

Road closures, 70+ mph winds, snow drifts taller than a car, and blizzards. That's how we do spring in Wyoming. Yes, while the rest of the country enjoys their tulips and plants first seeds in the garden, we Wyomingites celebrate the increasing daylight hours with snow shovels in hand. Lest you think I'm complaining, I'm not. As I've said before, I love living in a place with seasons (although sometimes I do get a wee bit jealous ...Continue Reading

70 Comments | |    Last Updated: July 5, 2022

50+ Ways to Use Extra Eggs

Big eggs, little eggs, brown eggs, blue eggs... That was my best attempt at a Dr. Seuss impression... But yeah, my life can be summed up by a single word at the moment: EGGS. The ducks are laying, the chickens are laying, I have eggs in the incubator (ready to hatch this week... eeek!), eggs on my counter, eggs in the basket, eggs falling out of my fridge. I'm drowning in eggs. I'm giving them away, and we're ...Continue Reading

69 Comments | |    Last Updated: February 23, 2021

Simple DIY Seed Starting System

Spring air smells like possibility. Don't you think? There's just something about the lengthening daylight and the scent of fragile green grass wafting through the air on a sunny spring afternoon that gives me goosebumps. So many possibilities. So many projects. So many ideas and dreams floating through my head. It's the homesteading equivalent of a blank slate. It makes me feel like a brand-new homesteader with stars in ...Continue Reading

28 Comments | |    Last Updated: July 24, 2021

My Blogging Story

  Pretty much never. That's about how often I talk about blogging here on the blog. Why? Well, because I know you come here to read about chickens and mason jars, not Wordpress and HTML. But to be perfectly honest, blogging is a big part of my life, and it consumes just as much time as my milk cows and deep mulch garden, in fact. I just keep that part of my life a little quieter. However, many of you have been sending me emails ...Continue Reading

115 Comments | |    Last Updated: June 13, 2023

No Knead Pizza Crust Recipe

I owe y'all an apology. Several years ago, I wrote a post in which I claimed to have found the ultimate pizza dough recipe. I lied. This past summer I stumbled upon a technique that has since blown every homemade pizza crust I've ever made out of the water. I've waited to share this no knead pizza crust recipe with you because I wanted to absolutely perfect it first. And after making it many, many times over the last 8 ...Continue Reading

30 Comments | |    Last Updated: January 8, 2024

A Simple Seed Starting Guide

It still feels like an eternity away... Walking around barefoot in green grass... Plugging my fingers deep into the cool soil... Counting dozens of little seeds in my palm... Winter is very long in Wyoming. There has been many a year where it felt like spring would never, ever come. And that's pretty much where I find myself at the moment. It's brown outside. And the snow is dirty and lingering. And there isn't a speck ...Continue Reading

Nice to Meet You

I’m Jill. I’ve never been very good at following prescribed paths.

For the last 15 years, that instinct has led me through homesteading, entrepreneurship, and creating a life my younger self could have only dreamed of.

These days, I’m less interested in living the perfect "old-fashioned life" and more interested in knowing which ideas are worth carrying forward. The first half of this story was about building a homestead. The next part is about building a life that actually fits.
Read My Story